Ashcroft Gives Judiciary Panel His Written Replies to Hundreds of Questions

By DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: January 27, 2001

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26—
John Ashcroft submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee today hundreds of written responses to questions as the battle over his nomination for attorney general was swiftly moving to a conclusion, and possibly a vote next week.

Mr. Ashcroft, who was criticized by gay rights groups when he was a Republican senator from Missouri and voted in committee against the appointment of James C. Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg in 1997, repeated an earlier statement about Mr. Hormel.

Mr. Ashcroft said that Mr. Hormel, who is openly gay, could not effectively represent the United States in Luxembourg, a nation that Mr. Ashcroft said was Europe's ''most Roman Catholic country.''

Most of Mr. Ashcroft's answers to the questions yielded little fresh insight into his thinking about contentious social issues that were fiercely debated in his confirmation hearings, like race, abortion and gun control. In response to many questions, Mr. Ashcroft said only that he would enforce the country's laws, even those he opposed.

Today, the top Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, expressed disappointment over Mr. Ashcroft's written responses.

''The answers are surprisingly unresponsive and often inconsistent with the hearing record and with Senator Ashcroft's own record,'' Mr. Leahy said in a statement.

Republicans said the questions had been completely and quickly answered.

Senate Republicans have been hoping to have the Ashcroft nomination voted on by the full Senate by Thursday. The current plan is for the Judiciary Committee to vote on Wednesday. After that, Republicans want to move the nomination immediately to the Senate floor for what is expected to be a long debate. Republican staff aides said they wanted the process over before a Republican retreat scheduled to begin at noon on Friday. In addition, they said they wanted to end the deliberations over Mr. Ashcroft's appointment to spare him further attacks.

Asked about the appointment of Mr. Hormel, who in 1998 was named by President Bill Clinton to the ambassadorial post in a maneuver that bypassed Congress, Mr. Ashcroft replied, ''Based on the totality of Mr. Hormel's record of public positions and advocacy, I did not believe he would effectively represent the United States in Luxembourg, the most Roman Catholic country in all of Europe.''

Mr. Ashcroft also repeated testimony he gave at last week's confirmation hearings, in which he said he would not seek to undermine Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that declared a woman's constitutional right to abortion. In his written answer, Mr. Ashcroft said he regarded the legal issue as settled ''through the passage of time and reaffirmation by the Supreme Court.''